


A Calculated Error

by PitchBlackMagpie



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Crack Treated Semi Seriously, Gen, Itachi big brother mode activate, Naruto and Sasuke have the motivation of a Nara, Parody, Time Travel, parody of overpowered Naruto and Sasuke
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-18
Updated: 2018-01-12
Packaged: 2018-05-27 12:54:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 17,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6285304
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PitchBlackMagpie/pseuds/PitchBlackMagpie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Naruto and Sasuke have never had much motivation to succeed. Sure, Naruto's mastered his Bijuu chakra and Sasuke's already achieved his mangekyo, but they don't have many goals. That is, until an experiment gone wrong sends them hurtling into the feudal era in the midst of peace talks. Their only goal now? Survive, if they don't somehow mess up the founding of their village.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Oops

"I don't know, Sasuke. This seems like a risky move. What's the point, really?"

Sasuke sighed. "Fine. I'm just bored, okay?"

Naruto swung his legs back and forth over the edge of the couch he occupied, staring up at the ceiling with a tired expression. "We could get arrested."

"Better than sitting here reading manga and watching soap operas all day."

"You know, you used to be so motivated," Naruto commented. He flipped to the next page in the book in his hands, but his eyes skimmed over the words, not reading them. "I wonder what happened."

A pained look crossed Sasuke's face. "I don't know. I think you're a bad influence."

"Probably."

In truth, when Naruto, in one of his hare-brained schemes, had hidden them in the Hokage's office for a prank and they'd overheard Sarutobi and Danzo speaking of the Uchiha Massacre, Sasuke had gone into a depressed funk. His main purpose in life- killing Itachi- had evaporated before his eyes, and he'd been left confused and angry.

Sasuke and Naruto had known each other for years. They'd become friends in their early Academy years, but it was only after the Massacre they really became close. Naruto's laziness and perpetual state of apathy had rubbed off on him.

Sasuke had never really gotten out of that slump, even after four years.

"Are you taking Mizuki's test?" Sasuke asked as he flipped to a different channel on the television.

"Nah," Naruto replied. During a prank, he'd broken into the restricted section of the library. Sasuke didn't know how many jutsu he'd learned, but he knew Naruto had taken the kage bunshin jutsu. Thus, his habit of sending a shadow clone to school every day in his place had started. It wasn't that he disliked the Academy students- Choji was all right- he just didn't care to deal with them.

Sasuke was still confused on how his clones could take Sakura's punches.

"Well, if you don't take Mizuki's offer, you'll be stuck as a student for another year," Sasuke said, eyes glazed over as he watched the TV like a zombie. He felt like his life was pointless. What was he even doing? "I'll help you steal it."

Naruto continued staring at his manga. "I dunno."

"Naruto," Sasuke began, voice wavering, "if I'm stuck on a team with two of those Academy idiots I'll scream. Please don't leave me to the fangirls."

A small shudder ran through Naruto. "…okay," he said.

* * *

"Sasuke, why didn't you guess this was a trick? You're supposed to be the genius," Naruto complained.

"Your idiocy's been rubbing off on me," Sasuke deadpanned. In actuality, neither one of them had cared enough to look into it.

Naruto reached out to poke Mizuki's cheek with his foot. "Think he's okay?"

Sasuke shrugged.

"Naruto," Iruka coughed. Naruto rushed over to him, showing a shocking amount of concern. "You've proved yourself worthy to be a shinobi of the village."

Sasuke rolled his eyes as Iruka said Naruto could one day achieve his 'dream'. The blond couldn't care less if he ever made Hokage or not- his personality was the complete opposite of his clones.

But still. He gave their sensei points for caring.

* * *

"Okay, team, why don't we introduce ourselves?" Kakashi smiled.

"Can you give us an example, sensei?" Sakura asked, sneaking a glance at Sasuke.

Naruto stared dully at the floor as his team droned on and on, only looking up when Kakashi said his name. "Why don't you go now?"

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki," he said out of reflex. "I like…" He trailed off, thinking hard. "…ramen? And…" There wasn't much he actually liked. "I don't dislike much. I don't really have any hobbies…or dreams…"

For a moment, Kakashi thought he was trying to prank them; but as he stared at the blank look on the boy's face, he started to sweatdrop. _Is he serious?_ "Sasuke, you next."

"I'm Sasuke Uchiha," Sasuke began. "I like…" He fell silent as Naruto had. "Training, sometimes," he said at last with a shrug. "I dislike certain people. I don't…have many hobbies. My dream is…" His mind went blank. What was he supposed to say? "Um."

"You've never told me about any dreams you had," said Naruto with a frown.

"To master my Sharingan?" Sasuke said as a last resort, starting to sweat.

Kakashi and Sakura stared at them. _What the hell?_

"Okay," Kakashi said after a long silence. "Moving on. You aren't genin yet…"

* * *

"Do you think we should try and get the bells?" Sasuke asked, staring down at where Kakashi stood in the clearing from a tree branch.

"I dunno. I guess." Naruto stared right along with him, sitting beside him with a lackluster expression.

Kakashi's eyebrow twitched wildly as he eavesdropped. _Are they even going to try?!_

"We should probably get Sakura to help. I haven't fought anyone in, like, two years," Naruto said, eyebrows furrowed.

"Sakura won't be much help," Sasuke replied, unaware Kakashi could hear them. Even if he were aware, he wouldn't have cared much.

"Well we shouldn't just leave her on her own. She'll probably, like, faint or something."

"Good riddance."

"That's mean."

"Why do you care?"

Naruto paused, mouth open, frowning. "…I don't, really."

"Maybe we should drop out and farm," Sasuke said suddenly, eyes hazy as he imagined alternative paths they could take.

"Farming is boring."

"This is boring."

Naruto sighed. "I just…" He weakly lifted one hand towards their 'sensei'. "It'd take so much effort…I'm so tired…"

"You haven't moved from my couch in three months."

"I'm so tired."

Sasuke sighed. "I wish this stupid test was over so I could go home."

They sat in silence for a minute. "Might as well get it over with, then," Naruto grumbled, fiddling with the ink decorating his wrists.

Sasuke squinted. "What's that?"

"Gravity seals."

"…didn't you put those on, like, seven years ago?"

"I forgot about them," Naruto admitted, shame on his face.

"Haven't they been multiplying?"

" _Technically_."

"What does that even mean."

"I don't know, Sasuke, leave me alone."

Naruto slipped out of the tree, landing with a thud in front of Kakashi. "Hey, sensei."

"Naruto," Kakashi responded, eyeing him suspiciously. "It's been over twenty minutes. Finally decided to try something?"

In place of replying, Naruto fished around in his pouch, frowning. "Where'd I put it?" he muttered.

Kakashi gave him a deadpan stare. "You know, this isn't a good way to start your shinobi career." The boy would find out very quickly how badly his attitude would go over in the shinobi world.

Sasuke had taken off into the trees in the direction of Sakura. At least they were trying to work together; it was better than most other teams, and Kakashi had expected this one to fight like cats and dogs. Sasuke and Naruto, however, were quickly turning into enigmas.

"Found it," Naruto mumbled, pulling a tiny scroll from his pocket. Kakashi's sweatdrop grew larger.

"Okay, sensei. Pick a number."

"…twelve?" Kakashi asked.

Naruto took a brush from the other pouch, thumbing open a bottle of ink on his belt Kakashi hadn't seen before. The man straightened, narrowing his eyes, watching Naruto open the scroll on his knee and begin drawing.

The hell? Those were level seven seals- multiple layers, working off a spiral base not unlike his Jinchuriki seal. With how small they were, the boy had to make them with near perfect precision- even a shiver of the hand could throw the whole array off.

In seconds, Naruto was finished, holding up the scroll with a smile similar to Kakashi's own. "Here you go, sensei!"

He held it out, dropped it in the pond, and ran away.

In pure confusion, Kakashi stood there, watching the scroll become soaked and sink lower and lower. Nothing happened.

As soon as twelve seconds passed, the wind picked up- and a hurricane exploded in the forest.

* * *

Sakura gaped up at the spiral of water in the sky in front of her in awe, watching stray crackles of electricity spark in it.

"Come on," Sasuke urged, grabbing her wrist and taking off into the trees.

"What was that?" she squeaked.

"Naruto," he replied.

"What?! Naruto did that?!"

"Yes."

"How?"

"I don't know."

Her brow furrowed. "Why not?"

Sasuke shrugged, glancing up at the sky. "I don't know."

Naruto was halfway through his bento when Sasuke found him. "Where's Kakashi?"

"I dunno," Naruto said around a mouthful of rice. Sasuke sighed and sat on the stump next to him, opening his own lunch.

"Sh-should we be doing that?" Sakura asked, uncertainty in her voice.

Naruto eyed the area he'd left Kakashi. He shrugged. They both proceeded to ignore her, with Naruto setting the bells on the ground in front of them. Sasuke didn't know how he'd gotten them.

Around five minutes later, Kakashi burst through the trees, breathing heavily. There were rips all over his clothes- probably from the wind chakra Naruto had imbued his hurricane with- and he was drenched, hair drooping into his eyes. "I'm tying you to the stump," he said flaty to Naruto.

"Kay," Naruto replied.

* * *

Sakura, surprisingly, was the first one to share her food with him.

"You _did_ get the bells," she murmured.

Sasuke stared blankly at the juice pack Naurto had put into his lunch. "Really, Naruto?"

"I like juice."

"Then put it in your bento."

"I did."

Sasuke proceeded to suck some juice into the straw and shoot it into Naruto's hair.

Kakashi appeared in a puff of smoke, wearing a beaten-down expression. "I don't know what's wrong with you kids, but sending you back to the Academy would only torture your teachers."

* * *

"Sasuke."

"What."

"Should we try and help Kakashi-sensei?"

Sasuke squinted at the water prison before shrugging.

"Wow," Zabuza said in a flat tone. "Your brats are so motivated."

"I know," Kakashi muttered with a sigh.

"I'll just smash it," Sasuke said, neglecting to elaborate what 'it' was or how he would smash it. Naruto placed his hand on his shoulder, golden chakra seeping out of him and into his friend.

A moment later, his eyes shifted, and a purple behemoth surrounded his body.

Zabuza stared. "…well, crap."

The area was filled with black flames a moment later.

* * *

Sasuke remembered vividly when he had awoken his mangekyo.

They'd been nine. Naruto had actually left his house instead of staying cooped up all day, unfortunately choosing his birthday to do so.

The anniversary of the Kyuubi attack was still an emotional day for the citizens. Naruto spent most of his time in the trashy districts, which was where most of the people who hated him most hung about.

He'd been running for the Uchiha Estate, chased by a small group of drunkards, but he hadn't reached the gate before they caught him.

They'd left him there, bloodied, and while he wasn't dead, he wasn't moving. Sasuke had come out of his house, irritated, wondering who was making a ruckus.

Naruto's body had been seared into his memory forever. Sure, he'd passed out directly after, but he'd never forgotten the details.

As little as they cared about…well, everything…they did care about each other.

* * *

_Naruto willed his legs to pump faster, blocking out the angry yells and hooting behind him. He ducked into an alley and scurried into the shadows, hoping his small body would be obscured from view.  
_

_"He went this way!" One of the men chasing him called out. There were only three of them- hardly anyone in the village actually tried to physically hurt him. The Sandaime had made it clear what the consequences would be for those who did._

_Muttering a few words under his breath his mother would shriek to hear him use, Naruto fled into the street on the other side of the alleyway. It was deserted, quiet and empty. The tract led straight towards the Uchiha District._

_He put on a burst of speed. Sweat rolled down his face in buckets as the footsteps behind him pounded closer and closer, but he sighed in relief when the District's gates came into view. There was a tiny hole in the fence on the right side, just big enough for small animals- or someone like Naruto- to slip through._

_"Not so fast!"_

_A hand snatched his collar, choking him. Naruto skidded, tumbling to the ground. He curled into a ball on reflex, peeking one eye open to look at the men who'd been chasing him._

_"You- you think," one of them slurred, obviously intoxicated. "You can just wreck our village and get away with it?"_

_"The beast thinks it can hide as a kid," the second one panted._

_Naruto covered his head with his arms as the first one started kicking him. "You monster! You destroyed my home!" The man screamed. "My wife died because of you!"_

_"I'm sorry!" Naruto cried._

_"'Sorry'? Monsters don't feel sorry," the third one snorted, rearing back his foot._

_Naruto hunched in on himself, wincing and waiting for them to stop. The second one pulled a pocket knife out of his coat, clumsily getting it open. "Make him bleed," the first one urged._

_A different kind of pain hit Naruto's senses. He held in his tears, knowing if he cried and screamed it would only make them stay longer. The drunkard slashed at his arms and back, cutting deep enough that red rivulets of blood started to streak down the boy's body and pool on the ground._

_"Hey, Yokiro," one of the others stumbled over his words, grabbing at his friend's shoulder. "Hold it, if we kill him we'll get in trouble."_

_"Yokiro" stopped, breathing heavily, and tossed the knife into the woods. "Whatever. Let's go."_

_Naruto kept completely still, vision blurry. He let himself breathe out in relief when they had gone, relaxing his body._

_He slipped away from consciousness, unaware of the Uchiha heir heading towards the gates._

_Sasuke slipped through the door set inside the gates, wearing a scowl. "What's going on out here?" he yelled, pausing when he saw a shape on the ground. A familiar mop of blond hair made him stop breathing. "Naruto?" he called hesitantly._

_When there was no answer, he broke into a sprint, growing panicked. "Naruto?" He slid to his knees, shaking the boy's shoulders. They came away soaked in blood._

_"No," the boy whispered, eyes wide. "Not- not again. Naruto. Naruto. NARUTO!"_

_He kept screaming his friend's name, over and over, until his eyes began to burn. Pain exploded in his head, and he fell to the ground, repressed sobs wracking his body. For the first time in his life, his eyes shed tears of blood._

_That was the day Naruto decided to make shadow clones to take his place, keeping himself locked in the Uchiha District day and night._

* * *

The mangekyo took an unreal amount of chakra to maintain. This was why he only used it when Naruto was with him, so he could give him a chakra boost.

Naruto's relationship with the Kyuubi was…interesting. Sasuke had only ventured into Naruto's mind once, but he'd seen part of a card game, bloodshot eyes on the beast, and an overturned Monopoly board before the screaming had started and the Uchiha had gotten the hell out of there.

His Susanoo took up the whole clearing and part of the lake, smashing everything in sight while Naruto's chakra protected Sakura and Tazuna. The flames burned everything but Kakashi's prison, getting tossed to and fro within the waves of the lake.

"What is that?" Sakura squeaked out. She and Tazuna clung to each other in pure terror.

"Susanoo," Naruto replied with an unconvincing grin.

"What?"

"Where'd Zabuza go?" Naruto said, poking Sasuke in the shoulder. They both powered down, examining the forest.

"Huh. I dunno."

Kakashi had come crashing to the ground in front of them, laying there as his face twitched. "You all right, sensei?" Sasuke asked.

"Just…just fine, Sasuke." Kakashi passed out, later chalking the experience up to a hallucination and taking the boys' fabricated story at face value.

* * *

Months passed with no incident. Kakashi struggled to get the two to train, but when they did, they destroyed whatever training area they used. It was frightening.

Which was why he had no qualms entering them into the chuunin exams- even if Sakura was leagues behind. Maybe it would motivate them to try and gain a rank.

It didn't motivate them at all.

Naruto slept through Ibiki's test, Sasuke didn't fill out a single question, and they took the full five days to make it to the tower. Kakashi had heard something about Orochimaru attacking them, but they didn't mention a thing.

(In actuality, the sannin had been sent running from a combination of Sasuke's Susanoo and Naruto's Tailed Beast Mode. The monster had chased him for miles, tearing through his snake summons like cheap paper. Sakura couldn't speak for a few hours afterward.)

Neither one made chuunin. Sasuke's match was interrupted, and Naruto didn't care enough to win against Neji- he beat him half to death and forfeited, slinking back up to the stands and plopping into a seat while muttering about how annoying it all was. Shikamaru had finally found a kindred spirit.

There was a lull in between the invasion and finding a new Hokage. Naruto had spent the month between the preliminaries and the exams training with a sannin whose name Sasuke had forgotten. When they left to find Tsunade, Sasuke ran ten miles to catch up to them, not wanting to be left alone in the village. It was _so boring._

Jiraiya had gone off to a bar, leaving Naruto and Sasuke in the hotel room. "So," Naruto said, slowly opening a scroll the size of a yardstick. "I was wanting to try something."

Sasuke, lounging on a sofa, opened one eye. "What might that be?"

"Just an experiment. I want to try space-time fuinjutsu."

"To try and learn your father's technique?" Sasuke asked.

Naruto nodded. "It'll transport us to the outskirts of this town. Only ten minutes before we arrived."

A glint of curiosity appeared in Sasuke's eye. "If that works, that would mean there was a version of us standing around when we arrived."

"Yep. That means we'll see ourselves, probably, before we even try this," Naruto said excitedly, opening a bottle of ink. "Come on, I need your chakra."

"Why?" Sasuke asked, getting up and kneeling on the other side of the scroll.

Naruto rolled his eyes. "To key you in. Duh." He nicked Sasuke's thumb, dropping a blot of blood onto a section of the scroll before doing the same for himself. "Just a failsafe. It'll ensure we hit the same spot, and not, like, me on the other side of the Land of Fire and you back in Konoha." Sasuke nodded.

On Naruto's instruction, he pressed a small amount of his chakra into one of the smaller seals. "Okay," the blond said, a bit of excitement Sasuke hadn't seen in years taking hold of him.

"When will it take us there?" Sasuke asked, frowning.

Naruto started to sweat. "Well…it's _supposed_ to be instant, but…"

Sasuke twitched. "Naruto…" he growled.

Naruto held up his hands. "It might not work! This is entirely theoretical-"

A knock at the door interrupted them.

Naruto jumped to his feet, crossing the room to the door and yanking it open. "We're busy," he said shortly.

All he saw was a swath of black and red. Blinking, he looked up, and up, and up, only to find himself staring into a pair of red eyes.

 ** _Genjutsu, brat,_** the Kyuubi yawned, breaking him out of it nonchalantly. Behind Itachi, Naruto could see a literal _shark-man._ What the heck?

"Naruto," Sasuke's voice yelled, strained, "I think your seal is malfunctioning."

"Your brother's here," Naruto called out.

Something made of glass toppled to the floor, shattering. "What?" Sasuke practically squeaked.

There was a _boom_ behind Naruto that took out half the hotel wall. A blast of chakra sent the blue man into the opposite wall and tumbling outside; Itachi only avoided the blast because he was quick enough to duck.

Naruto felt himself get yanked back; by what, he didn't know. He finally turned, eyes widening; the seals were all glowing, the scroll floating in midair, with random objects flying about the apartment. Sasuke had his heels dug into the floor, trying to fight the pull, holding onto the doorjamb of the closet.

Naruto cursed. The seal he'd placed in the center- manifested over a clock face- had started to spin, the clock hands whirling at an insane pace. "Sasuke!" he yelled, losing his balance.

There was a flash of light that blinded them all. Naruto slipped, and in the span of two seconds, he was gone, pulled into the whirlpool in the middle of the room before Itachi could grab him.

Sasuke panicked. His mind flew from outcome to outcome, alternating between _ITACHI ITACHI ITACHI ITACHI WHAT DO I DO?_ and _NARUTO DISAPPEARED INTO A PIECE OF PAPER_.

Part of the wood ripped from the wall in his hand. He knew he was going to get pulled in.

"Itachi!" he yelled, frantic. He couldn't die with Itachi thinking he hated him. He was still conflicted, and at times angry at his brother, but he didn't _hate_ him. There were so many things he wanted to say- he couldn't possibly decide on just one. _I forgive you. I don't hate you. I know the truth. I know you didn't want to. I know you tried to protect me. I know what Father was planning._

Itachi, eyes wide (Sasuke couldn't even enjoy the surprise on his face), turned, hat having been blown off his head towards the ceiling.

"I love you!" Sasuke shouted, and then the world was full of white and yellow and pink and green and every other color under the rainbow. He got the sensation he was floating, almost like he was in a river, immersed in the water but not drowning.

He couldn't breathe. The world twisted around him, and a forest came into view, just before he hit the ground and fell unconscious.


	2. Like Headless Chickens

" _Hey."_

_Naruto quickly wiped away his tears, turning to face the person who'd spoken. A boy stood in front of him, wearing a goofy black shirt and a pair of shorts. He stuck his hand out, smiling. "I'm Sasuke."_

_Sniffling, Naruto stared at the hand. "I'm Naruto."_

_"You're supposed to shake it."_

_Frowning in confusion, Naruto grabbed the boy's outstretched hand with one of his own in an awkward hold, shaking it back and forth._

_"What- no." Shaking his head, Sasuke corrected Naruto's hand and shook it up and down. "Like that."_

_"Oh," Naruto said._

_Sasuke couldn't help but grin. "You're kind of an idiot, you know?"_

_"Hey! I'm not an idiot!" Naruto yelled, standing up in his anger. "I've just never done it before!"_

_Sasuke blinked. "You've never shaken someone's hand?"_

_"No," Naruto replied, turning away with a pout and a blush of embarrassment._

_"Don't your parents shake people's hands?"_

_"I don't have parents," Naruto muttered._

_"Oh." Sasuke stood there awkwardly. "Sorry. Why are you always over here?"_

_"The other kids don't want me around," Naruto said, staring at the ground. "They all hate me."_

_Sasuke frowned. "Why?"_

_Naruto shrugged. "I dunno. They just do. None of them want to be my friend."_

_"Oh…" Sasuke shifted from one foot to the other. "Well…I'll be your friend." Really, he'd only come over because his father had told him not to, but he felt bad for the kid now._

_Naruto turned to face him, eyes shining. "Really?"_

* * *

Naruto groaned, opening his eyes and immediately shutting them again due to the light shining in his face.

"He's awake!" Someone yelled.

Naruto slapped the lantern away from him, kicking the rough blanket he felt on his body off and attempting to sit up. "Take it easy," the voice said, and he squinted against the darkness around the lantern to see her voice. "I don't know what you were doing, but it took a toll on you."

_I got dragged through a portal after I did something stupid,_ was what he didn't say. He guessed he was still in town- he should probably try and find Jiraiya.

A moment later, he jolted, looking around wildly. Where was Sasuke?

"Well, young one, you gave us quite a scare." An old man ducked in the doorway, wearing what looked like old style armor. Naruto frowned, glancing from him to the petite brown-haired woman at his bedside. "You're lucky we found you and not one of your enemies."

_Enemies?_ Were they talking about Itachi and the shark-man?

"Who are you and where the hell am I?" he demanded, yanking himself up and pushing off so he stood with the bed- cot?- between him and them.

"There's no need to be frightened," the woman said, wearing a gentle expression. He twitched. He wasn't some deer that was going to run off at the slightest provocation. "You're with allies."

Again, _what?_

"Our village is allied with your clan," the old man said, seeing his confusion. "We are a small place, but we provide aid and comfort when we can."

"What clan?" Naruto asked, question marks practically dancing around his head.

"You're an Uzumaki, aren't you?" The woman frowned. "Your chakra is like that of an Uzumaki."

Naruto glanced down at himself. He wore a pair of plain forest-green pants like the ones jounin wore, and a grey shirt with mesh sleeves. His orange jacket hung over it, the Uzumaki whirl on each shoulder. "Er…" _Do they need a history lesson?_ "Yes, but…I don't live with the clan," he said, deciding to humor them.

They both frowned. "My mother was- uhm- lived on her own, you see, and-"

"Ah," the woman's face lit up with recognition. "She branched off? Were you coming to join the clan? Did she marry an outsider, and thus why your hair isn't red?"

"Yes," Naruto said, growing increasingly uncomfortable and confused. "Remind me where I am again?"

"This is the village of Amane. The Uzumaki are our friends," she explained, round eyes going soft.

"I see." He chose his next words carefully. "Was there someone with me? A boy with dark hair, a little taller than I am, in dark clothing?"

At this, they both frowned. "There was," the old man said. "The Uchiha boy."

The woman grew sad. "We've confined him, though we regret to do so."

"What? Why?" he asked, stunned.

She gave him a confused look. "The Uchiha are our enemies."

Naruto felt sick to his stomach. What had he gotten himself and Sasuke into? Some backwards community that thought his clan was still alive and kicking? A cult? "Oh, right. Sorry, my head is still foggy," he said, rubbing his forehead. "Anyway…I really should be leaving-"

"There's no need for you to go alone, young one," the old man interrupted him. His beard reached all the way to his chest. Naruto eyed him. "I am Elder Morane, the leader of this village. I've contacted the Senju, and they're sending a small squad to retrieve you. They're very thorough about taking care of their own and their allies."

Naruto's stomach flipped. _Senju? Retrieve?_

He branched out his senses, looking for Sasuke's chakra. He zeroed in on it like a beacon; he wasn't a sensor nin for nothing. "Ah," he laughed. "That's- that's good. Thank you so much. Do you mind if I get some, ah-"

"Would you like some water?" The woman questioned.

"Yes!" Naruto exclaimed, nodding. "That would be nice. Thank you."

She smiled at him before leaving through the flap in the tent they stood in. "T-thank you, uh, sir," Naruto said awkwardly. Morane gave him a benevolent smile, returning the sentiment before he left as well.

There were two chakra signatures outside his tent- guards, probably. They didn't seem stupid enough to leave a stranger alone, even if he was only a kid and supposedly an ally.

_Crap. Crap. Crap. What am I supposed to do?_ Naruto looked around for his equipment before he realized he'd sealed most of it away in the storage seals on his skin. It was lucky he hadn't been wounded enough they'd needed to undress him- he didn't want to have to explain what they were.

The woman was coming back. He could feel her chakra coming towards the tent. He hurriedly sat down on the cot, trying to make himself look calm even though he was inwardly screaming.

She appeared with a bright grin, holding a wooden mug. "Here you are," she said, handing it to him. He gave her a grateful, twitchy smile. "I'm Suzuki, by the way."

"N-N-" Naruto bit his tongue. "I'm Naru," he gave her a fake grin.

"It's nice to make your acquaintance, Naru," she replied. "It must have been hard for you being on your own so far."

"Yeah…" Naruto trailed off.

"What happened to your mother?" she prodded gently.

"Ah…she died when I was young," he replied, thrown off. "I don't remember much about her…except for her hair." He didn't know why he had said it. Kushina wasn't someone he liked talking about- it only reminded him of what he'd never had.

"I'm sorry," Suzuki said, regret flashing across her face. "I loathe that we live in these times, with so many children separated from their parents."

_O-K, entering crazy town._

He nodded. "Never met my dad," he said, knowing he should tell her some of the truth. If she was trained to spot a lie, it would only make it harder for her. "Got my hair from him, though."

She grinned. "That explains things. At first we thought you were clan-less until we saw your crests and examined your chakra." They must not have had any good sensor nins, otherwise they would have discovered the Kyuubi within him. Naruto sweatdropped. "Why were you and that boy fighting?"

_Fighting?_ Oh, right. They thought the Uchiha and Senju were still enemies. "Uh…"

Another woman poked her head into the tent. "Suzuki, can you come help me with Tenshi?"

"Of course." Suzuki gave Naruto a look. "If you need anything, just ask."

Naruto nodded as she left. As soon as he knew he was alone, he sat cross-legged on the ground, folding his hands in front of him, and delved into his mind.

The waters of his sewer mindscape greeted him with a wet squelch. Wrinkling his nose, Naruto darted down the hall, hurrying towards the beast's cage.

Everything beyond the golden bars was dark. "Hey! Kyuubi! You awake?" he yelled, banging on the gate.

There was a groan. Naruto saw something shift in the darkness, backing up a few steps in case the Kyuubi had woken up grumpy.

**"…brat?"** Kurama asked, groggy.

"Are you all right?" Naruto asked, concerned.

**"You have no idea what you've done."** Kurama let his head slam into the ground.

Naruto frowned. "What do you mean?"

A deep sigh. The room lightened, and Naruto examined the Bijuu's form. He seemed darker than before.

"What happened to you?" Naruto rubbed his temples. This was too much stress. He wanted to go home and lie on the couch.

**"Your** ** _genius_** **jutsu didn't just send you ten minutes back in time,"** Kurama growled. **"It sent you over eighty** ** _YEARS_** **."**

For several long moments, Naruto simply stared. "…what?" he asked weakly.

**"You're in- what do you humans call it- the 'feudal era',"** Kurama scowled. **"When you, like the idiot you are, catapulted you and your idiot friend back here I absorbed my counterpart. It's impossible for two of the same Bijuu to exist in the same place."**

"Wouldn't you get absorbed by him? He's stronger than you, since Dad split you in half," Naruto frowned.

**"Strength doesn't matter. It's a clash of wills. Even if I am divided, I'm much more-"**

"Stubborn?"

**"Shut up. I suggest you get out of here and find your Uchiha friend before he gets carted off to an execution or something and you get stuck fighting for a clan in a senseless war."**

With that, Kurama booted him from his mind. Naruto stumbled back to his body with a jolt, blinking rapidly.

Someone was yelling outside. Naruto crawled to the tent flap, peeking into the street.

There were two shinobi outside, wearing Senju crests on their arms. Morane and Suzuki were speaking to them, and Naruto blanched when Morane gestured to his tent.

He leapt back and hurriedly took out some sealing ink and a brush. "Kage bunshin no jutsu," he whispered. With barely a puff of smoke, a clone appeared in front of him. It slid onto the cot.

He snatched up a piece of scrap paper from the desk, hand flying at the speed of light. In moments, he'd drawn a multi-layered seal and pressed it against his skin.

He slid out the back of the tent, tensing when one of the guards' eyes slid past him. The seal didn't make him invisible, just more likely to be ignored.

He crept from barrels to tents to log piles to trees, making his way across the small village towards Sasuke's chakra. Behind him, he heard Suzuki calling out for him, having just reached the tent.

Heart pounding, he shuffled under the back flap of a dark brown tent, leaping up and chopping a bored-looking male in the neck. He fell to the floor unconscious, nearly knocking over the barrel he'd been sitting on. Opposite of the desk, Sasuke sat on the floor, bound in ropes, with a strange seal on his bare arm.

"What is going on?" Sasuke hissed.

"Nothing good," Naruto replied in a whisper, taking out a kunai and slashing the ropes. "Hold on, I'll explain later. I have to get this off."

The seal was astoundingly intricate. He could tell it was a chakra suppressant, with three different layers- one with five points, one with three, and the last with five again. These people really _were_ allies with the Uzumaki.

Still, he wasn't a seal master for nothing.

There was a distinct 'pop' that signaled his shadow clone had gotten itself dispelled outside, followed by shouting. Sasuke paled, hissing at him to hurry up.

The seal dissolved thirty seconds after he'd started. Not waiting around, Naruto grabbed his friend's hand and darted back the way he'd come, sprinting into the forest- just their luck, the tent functioning as Sasuke's jail cell was near the tree line.

"Hey!" Someone caught sight of them. "Over here!"

Naruto picked up the pace, letting go of Sasuke so they could dodge the branches and brush. Bark scratched at his face and hands, but he didn't slow down; keeping track of Sasuke's footsteps, he led them in the direction with the least chakra signals.

The two shinobi had given chase, not within their sights yet but gaining fast. Naruto gave Sasuke a nod, channeling chakra to his legs.

There was a reason they were the pranksters who once replaced the ANBU's supplies with nothing but sake.

* * *

Sasuke dropped a deer in front of him, looking haggard. "You talk while I butcher this," he ordered, taking out a kunai.

Naruto sighed, slumping against a log. They'd run for miles in who knows what direction, constantly looking over their shoulders, before settling down in a small cave. Naruto had set up layers and layers of barrier seals and drug a log into it before setting up a fire with a storage scroll set up above it to absorb the smoke.

"My jutsu…er, it…didn't work like I'd planned," Naruto admitted, avoiding Sasuke's eyes as the other genin cut into the deer.

"How exactly did it not go as planned?"

"Well, instead of going ten minutes into the past," Naruto paused. "We went around eighty years."

Sasuke's kunai froze. He stood there for a moment before slowly turning to face him, expression sharp. "What did you say?"

"You heard me," Naruto deadpanned.

"…how?" Sasuke breathed.

"Well, space-time jutsu basically work like a reverse summoning- summoning yourself to a place instead of summoning something to you, like an animal, and it works under several theories of time being a force like gravity-"

"I don't mean HOW, I mean _HOW?_ " Sasuke screamed, grabbing his collar with deer blood still on his hands.

Naruto gave him a bland look. "It malfunctioned, overloaded, went boom, here we are." Sasuke let go of him, staring off into space with a defeated expression. "I can- I can _probably_ get us back."

"Probably," Sasuke repeated.

"I'll need time." Naruto licked his lips. "But hey, not like we have much to go back to," he said, trying to lighten the mood.

Sasuke was silent for a moment. "I told Itachi I loved him," he murmured, expression turning depressed. Naruto cringed.

"I…"

Sasuke turned his back and wandered back over to the deer, ignoring him. Guilty, Naruto began working on another layer of barrier seals.

* * *

"I don't understand. Why would a child of the Uzumaki flee with an Uchiha?" Toka asked with a frown.

Tsuyoi examined the tracks in the forest floor with a pensive expression. "I'm not sure. Maybe he wanted to exact his own vengeance. It's unfortunate, but many children are like that."

"Suzuki told me they were seen running _together_ , not with one as a hostage," Toka said, crossing her arms.

"Is it possible they are allies, then?"

Toka shifted her gaze to the treetops. "If they are, they've made a mistake entering this territory. The height of the Uchiha-Senju conflict resides here. They will not be able to stay out of it."

Sighing, Tsuyoi got to his feet. "If the boy sides with the Uchiha, we may have to kill him."

Toka's eyes softened a fraction. "Hashirama-sama will be upset by that."

"Be that as it may, we can't afford to show mercy on the battlefield. I wouldn't put it past the Uchiha to send children out like they used to, even if Madara is seemingly against that practice." Tsuyoi examined the seven different directions the tracks went. "Still, I don't think I can track him further. One who knows how to create clones will have made many to throw trackers off. Although I'm interested in how he gained knowledge of Tobirama-sama's jutsu."

"Let's report back. If he wants us to find him that badly, Hashirama-sama will instruct us on what to do from here."

* * *

Naruto and Sasuke sat in silence, gnawing on tough meat until their bellies were full. Sasuke set the rest on a boulder to dry out.

"So," Sasuke said after an awkward amount of time, "what are we going to do?"

Naruto stared at the ceiling of the cave. "Well, we can't sit here for the rest of our lives."

Sasuke stiffened. "Are you saying we might spend the rest of our lives in this time period?"

"W-what? Of course not," Naruto laughed nervously. "Just that it will probably take more than a few days for me to figure out what went wrong and that we should find somewhere easier to live."

Sasuke gnawed on his lip. "Surely there's a village we can hide out in."

"I dunno, the feudal wars were pretty intense. The village hasn't even been started yet." Naruto sighed heavily. "This is such a drag."

He took a piece of paper from his pocket. "I did swipe this from the guy I knocked out. It looks like a map of the area."

Sasuke looked over his shoulder. "I don't recognize a thing."

"Me either, but I think we passed that big tree there. This town here says 'neutral', so…I think we should just try that in a few days, wait until people have forgotten us."

"Whatever you say…"

* * *

_"Aw, come on, Sasuke, it'll be fun!" Naruto giggled, waving a brush back and forth._

_Sasuke sighed and gave him a look that just screamed "You're going to get us both killed". "Why am I helping you again?"_

_Naruto made an adjustment in the sealing array he'd drawn on the underside of the floorboards. He'd pried them up, dropping into the tiny, tiny compartment below consisting of a few horizontal pillars and construction material. "Shh," he whispered, giggling again. "I wanna see if I can catch Jiji with his perverted books!"_

_Sasuke rolled his eyes, but straightened when they heard the door open._

_"-if you'd just let me train the boy," an unfamiliar voice said. The door slid shut._

_"I've told you before, Danzo." Naruto frowned when he recognized Sarutobi's voice. "The Uchiha boy is off-limits."_

_Naruto and Sasuke shared a look, wanting to lean forward and relieve their cramped muscles but not daring to make a move._

_"He's the last of his clan. He could be a great asset to this village."_

_"And whose fault is it that he is the last of his clan?" Sarutobi asked wryly, setting at his desk with a glare._

_Naruto got the feeling this Danzo-dude was getting irritated. "The Uchiha had to be exterminated, you know that." Sasuke's eyes went wide. "If they went through with that little plan of theirs, you would not only lose that seat of yours but this village would be in open civil war." Sasuke's mouth opened in wordless confusion._

_"I wanted to try and make peace with them."_

_"They were beyond that. A coup would have crippled us. Having Itachi take them out was the only option."_

_"And what of Sasuke now? The poor boy has lost his whole family, and you want to turn him into a weapon?"_

_"Itachi is no longer here to carry out your orders, Sarutobi."_

_"That does not mean young Sasuke-kun must take his place. This discussion is over, Danzo. He's lost enough already, and Kami knows how badly a life lived for revenge can harm a child. I promised Itachi I would keep him safe- I will not let anyone use him as a tool."_

_"…very well. Goodbye, Hiruzen."_

_Naruto and Sasuke were deathly silent, not moving a muscle. Naruto slid his eyes towards Sasuke, swallowing, but the Uchiha's gaze was vacant._

_He looked as if his whole world had come crashing down._

* * *

"Man. This is such a drag," Naruto complained.

"Okay, Shikamaru," Sasuke snorted. Naruto sighed at him.

He'd torn the Uzumaki village's swirls off his jacket, but the orange was still quite conspicuous. Unfortunately, it was getting colder, harsh winds blowing at their backs as they walked through the forest, so he couldn't afford to get rid of it.

"The village should be up ahead," Naruto sighed. It had been four days, and he still couldn't figure out what he'd done wrong. It was like when he'd come across a mathematics problem in his Academy days he just couldn't figure out no matter what angle he went at it from.

Sasuke adjusted his hood. Unlike Naruto, he always wore something with one.

The village was small, consisting of only one street with several buildings on either side, surrounded by forest. The street was connected to a path leading into the forest, created by thousands of feet coming and going.

Naruto spotted an inn, but came across a problem. "We have no money," he murmured to Sasuke.

"I know." Sasuke sighed heavily. They both sighed very often.

"Well…" Naruto eyed around for someone to pickpocket. "I hate to do it, but every era has their overly pompous rich- er, richer, this place is tiny- jerkwads…"

"Whatever," Sasuke yawned. "Just meet me at the inn." He shuffled away, shoulders hunched.

Ten minutes later, Naruto stepped inside the small establishment with a bag of coins in his pocket. He paid for a room- they only had four- and led Sasuke to the one at the end of the hall. There was only a cot and a water basin within.

"I'll take the floor," Sasuke muttered sourly, taking the blanket off the cot.

Naruto rolled his eyes and kicked the door shut, proceeding to start on the room's barrier seals.

* * *

"Hey, isn't that the kid your cousin was looking for?"

"I think he is. It's lucky we came to get supplies today. You go tell Toka."

* * *

"Holy crap. There's a couple of Senju over there. Go tell Izuna-sama."

"Hold on. I saw this kid go into the inn. He looked _just like_ Izuna-sama. I think he might be an Uchiha..."


	3. Disrespeccful Younguns

"Are you going to do anything?" Sasuke asked, frowning.

"No," Naruto replied, voice muffled due to the fact he was lying face-down on the cot.

His companion sighed yet again. "I'm going to buy some food."

The door clicked, signaling Sasuke's leaving. Naruto didn't move, just folded his hands over the back of his head.

This was just too troublesome.

* * *

Sasuke stared at the stand in front of him, wearing a bland expression. The only things they had were browning radishes and freshly cut grasses. "I guess…I'll take…a few radishes…"

While the shopkeep was setting the vegetables into a bag, Sasuke noticed two men eyeing him from across the street. They had dark hair and clothing, eerily similar to the general appearance his clan members used to have. Crap.

They were Uchiha. He could tell just by how they looked. There was the slightest bit of red visible just underneath one's armor on the sleeve of his shirt. Double crap.

"Hurry it up with that," he mumbled. The shopkeep grumbled at him, muttering about disrespectful 'young'uns'.

One of them started across towards him. "You know what, never mind," Sasuke said, turning and walking in the opposite direction. He didn't need the food _that_ badly.

He paused when he saw a shinobi standing across the way- his appearance was disturbingly similar to one of the Senju who'd originally chased him and Naruto. It couldn't be…they couldn't have _that_ bad of luck, could they?

Yes, yes they could. Triple crap.

He immediately turned and picked up the pace to walk away, running straight into the Uchiha standing behind him. "Oof!"

"Hey," the man said, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Are you-" He caught sight of the Senju and Sasuke's nervous look and narrowed his eyes. "You're an Uchiha, yes?"

"Um," Sasuke replied intelligently.

"It's unwise to be loitering where the Senju frequent."

"Um."

While this was going on, Naruto exited the inn, confused at what was taking him so long. He caught sight of the Senju and instantly speed-walked in the other direction, bumping into a woman as she emerged from the space between two buildings. He'd been heading for Sasuke, mere feet away, but stumbled when he ran into her.

He recognized her instantly. _Oh, come on. This is such a drag._

Her eyes lit up in recognition. "You're-"

"So sorry for running into you gotta go," Naruto rushed by, grabbing Sasuke by the wrist and taking off for the woods. Seriously, could they not even spend _one night_ in an actual building?

He missed his soap operas.

A shadow darted in front of them. They both skidded to a stop as the shinobi behind them caged them in. A stare down proceeded, with the Uchiha on one side of the path and the Senju on the other and a man that looked too similar to Sasuke in front of them.

Izuna stood in the middle of the road, eyebrows raised and arms crossed. "Holy crap, that kid _does_ look like me," he said with a small note of awe.

"Wow," Naruto said at the same time, "'Suke, are you related?"

Sasuke gave him an irritated look. "Senju," Izuna greeted, giving Toka a disinterested look.

"Uchiha," she replied, a growl in her voice.

"…well, this is awkward," Naruto said.

* * *

"We don't wish to do battle right now, Izuna," Toka said calmly. "We only want to escort this Uzumaki child to his clan."

"Are you an Uchiha, boy?" Izuna called out.

"Uh…" Great, everyone was staring at him now. What did they expect? Some grandiose speech? Sasuke was so tired. "Y-yeeeess?"

"Then you'll come with us. Problem solved." Despite his overwhelming desire to smash Toka's face in, Izuna knew it would be unwise to start a fight then, in neutral territory.

"Except we don't really want to," Naruto broke in awkwardly. "I'm not interested in joining up with the clan."

"Me either," Sasuke agreed.

The adults stared at them. "Are you- are you serious?" One of the Senju men asked.

"Are you going to let us go quietly?" Naruto asked carefully. There was a silence, and he suspected neither side actually knew what to do. "Okay, then," he sighed. "Sasuke."

Sasuke nodded. "Do I…?"

"Yeah."

"Children, you don't have to fight us," Toka said in a concerned tone. Naruto was starting to wonder what their deal with attacking kids was. They didn't seem like they _wouldn't_ , just as if they didn't _want_ to.

Naruto leveled a blank stare at her. "This guy," he pointed to Sasuke, "is my best friend, and we're not separating so we can be pawns in your petty little conflicts because you can't let go of your hatred." She drew back, looking like he'd slapped her with a fish. That would probably be funny. "Sasuke, let's go."

His chakra exploded around them both, glowing bright gold in its intensity. Sasuke's Susanoo roared to life, taking up the whole street, and the farmers and civilians piddling around screamed and fled.

Naruto caught one glance of Izuna, eyes wide and stunned, before a wall of purple obstructed his vision. Naruto, having not even tapped into the Kyuubi's energy yet, formed his chakra into a dense ball, filling it with elemental water chakra until he had filled the orb with said element.

He took out one of his 'special' tags, tossing it into the orb. "Go!" he yelled to Sasuke.

The Susanoo took off in a wild rush, leaving the exploding miniature hurricane behind them.

* * *

Naruto pressed a bundle of gauze to each of Sasuke's eyes as they bled, wincing. "That's got to hurt."

Sasuke shrugged. "It gets easier."

"You blind yet?"

Sasuke snorted. "No."

They had retreated to a clearing a ways away, using up more of the few medical supplies Naruto kept in his storage. If only he'd thought to store some food.

"You know," Naruto said softly, "we could use your mother's eyes."

When Sasuke's mangekyo had emerged, Naruto had scoured the Uchiha records for any hint as to how they could prevent blindness, as the Kyuubi had told him how those eyes ended up. He'd only found one hint, in Sasuke's father's journal, about his mother's eyes showing a strange pattern one day. When he'd asked about it, she'd just smiled and told him he was seeing things.

It was the only option they'd had. Naruto had taken her eyes with Sasuke's permission, keeping them preserved in a seal on his bicep. It had only been a few months since she'd died, and Uchiha burials always preserved the eyes exceptionally well.

Sasuke took a deep breath. Naruto was no medical ninja, but he'd devised a seal to place on Sasuke's eyes that would, for lack of a better term, merge the nerves without needing surgery. "Everything…has been blurry," he admitted.

"Sasuke, it's time," Naruto said, placing a hand on his shoulder. "We only got away from them because we were lucky and surprised them and they underestimated us _again_. I can't have you going blind on me."

Sasuke slowly let his breath out through his nose. "I know."

* * *

Toka examined the destruction around her with a serious gaze, arms crossed and hands tight on her biceps. "Anyone know what that was?" Akane muttered. The Uchiha had disappeared after the attack had died down, nowhere to be seen. Around them, people were murmuring as they cleaned up the damage, fixing overturned carts, damaged buildings, and destroyed crops.

"No idea," their third member shrugged. "It sure was powerful, though."

Something caught her attention. She walked to the middle of the road, snatching a slip of paper from the ground. An elaborate seal grouping was painted on, the likes of which she'd only seen skilled Uzumaki use.

"Let us return to the compound," she said, slipping the paper into her pocket. "Hashirama-sama and Mito-sama need to be aware of this."

* * *

"Izuna-sama, that boy…"

"Has the Mangekyo Sharingan, like Madara and I do," Izuna finished. Shin and Umi nodded, looking wary. "One thing is certain. We can't just let him run about; he's both a valuable asset and a target now."

* * *

Naruto and Sasuke had been lying about in the same clearing for going on three days, with no motivation to move.

"Such a drag," Naruto murmured. He'd only moved to hunt and use the forest's 'facilities'. Sasuke was immobile, wearing bandages on his eyes since Naruto had performed the procedure.

Sasuke sighed.

Naruto jolted suddenly and cursed. "Chakra signals moving toward us," he whispered, grabbing Sasuke and rushing into the bushes. They huddled at the base of a tree, Naruto shedding his jacket and tossing it under a bush.

Three ninja burst into the clearing, pausing on the branches of a tree. "Over there," one of them called, immediately spotting the bright orange of Naruto's jacket. The boys held their breath as one of them jumped to the ground and snatched it up, mere feet away. "They were here. Must be close."

The ninja- who Naruto couldn't determine if they were either Senju or Uchiha- darted into the woods again.

"Crud," Naruto muttered. "That was my favorite jacket."

* * *

"You know, I'd really like to be in the correct time period right about now," Sasuke deadpanned, one hand on Naruto's shoulder as he led them through the woods.

Naruto sweatdropped. "Yeah, well…I'd rather you hadn't made me go take Mizuki's test. This never would have happened if you'd have let me be a hermit."

"Sunshine is good for you," Sasuke mumbled. Naruto was starting to worry about him. He'd fallen into a funk since seeing Itachi the likes of which hadn't been seen since he found out about- well, Itachi.

They'd been making their way north, avoiding populated areas and Uchiha patrols. It had been days since they'd had a good meal, as even though Naruto's trapping skills were excellent, they never stopped long enough to catch much.

The terrain had become more rocky and rough, leaving the dense forests behind in lieu of wet woods and cliffs in the midst of the trees. Naruto wished they'd at least gone to a place where the geography was similar.

Then again, he wouldn't have known it anyway, since he'd rarely left his apartment and Sasuke's house.

Yawning, Naruto sat down on a log, leaning his chin in his hands. "I'm so tired. I haven't done so much walking and running in…years."

Sasuke sighed. "I could just sit here and never get back up again," he said, tilting his head back to appreciate the sunlight on his forehead.

The ground shivered. Frowning, Naruto glanced down at his feet. "Did you feel that?"

"Feel what?" Sasuke replied, not paying attention.

A pair of hands burst from the ground. "Holy-" They tossed Naruto across the clearing before he could finish his sentence.

"Naruto?" Sasuke called out, retracting his feet. He wasn't fast enough, as the hands grabbed his ankles. "What in the-?"

A dark-skinned man leapt out of the ground, wearing a different style of armor than either the Uchiha or Senju.

"Sasuke-" A pair of arms wrapped around him from behind, and the world exploded in, strangely enough, bright neon green. Ignoring a random Gai and Lee flashback, he yelled out, "What the heck?"

When the color died down, he stood on a plateau of rocks, looking out over to top of the forest. Another shinobi stood in front of him, hands still in the action of making a hand seal.

Grumbling, Naruto slid into his taijutsu stance, sighing. "Let's just get this over with."

"Okay, who the hell are you?"

* * *

"When my superiors told me to capture an Uchiha, I didn't think it'd be a blind one." The man's voice floated in front of him, grating and irritating. "I was told you could use an advanced form of the Sharingan."

Sasuke kicked a stray pebble. "Hn."

"That's annoying. All you Uchiha are the same," the man complained.

Sasuke could feel Naruto's chakra in the distance. "Well, if I'm so useless, come at me," he said lightly, waving one hand towards himself.

"Sure. Beat up a blind kid. Well, I'm not above it."

Sasuke smirked. "If you're so confident..." He searched for a phrase to tack on, but trailed off, not willing to exert the brainpower to find one. "What's your name?"

"Like I'd tell you. I'm not like Kizoku, damn him," the man muttered under his breath, unaware Sasuke could hear him. He'd developed a technique to augment his hearing with chakra, and he was extra-attentive due to his temporary blindness. "He brags to everybody."

"Okay...let's fight, then, you're boring me."

"You- never mind. I'll just take off a few fingers, see how sarcastic you are then."

Sasuke felt the man lunge. He sidestepped his strike, feeling the air shift beside his ear as he did so. The man's feet tapped on the ground, a steady beat, and Sasuke could tell his stance was wide and solid.

 _Earth-style, probably._ Sure enough, the man ducked underground, using a move reminiscent of Kakashi's head-hunter jutsu, unaware Sasuke could feel every vibration.

As soon as the shinobi jumped through the ground, Sasuke slammed the hilt of his blade into his head, feeling satisfied when a loud _crack_ told him his aim was just as good as ever.

* * *

"So what clan are you from again?" Naruto asked, picking a bit of earwax out of his ear.

The man cast him an annoyed look. "The Hagane clan."

"Okaaaaay…and you're attacking me why."

"Rumors about you two brats have been spreading," 'Kizoku' said, circling him. "You'll be a great asset."

" _If_ you can brainwash-slash-torture me. What do people even say about me? I'm not that above average."

Kizoku snorted. "Right. A seal master that undid Mito Uzumaki's work is below average."

Naruto paused. "Oh, that was hers? I expected better…"

"And that's exactly why I'm here."

"Okay, but what about my friend?"

"Enough talk."

Kizoku lunged across the rocks towards him. Naruto slipped out of his space, poking at Kurama until he woke up.

**_Ugh, what?_ **

_Do you know the Hagane clan?_

**_Hgh…I don't know, brat. One of the many clans those damn Senju were fighting with. They hated the Uchiha too, I think. There were lots of them back then._ **

_So helpful._

Well, at least the day wasn't boring. Then again...boring required less effort.

* * *

As he headed in the direction of Naruto's chakra (he would _vehemently_ deny the many times he tripped over rocks and pebbles) Sasuke cut down two more clan members who decided it was a good day to harass him. It was just Naruto's stupid luck he'd led them into hostile territory.

It was concerning how they could hide their chakra while underground, but so far he'd managed to avoid any surprise attacks.

Still…he felt like he was walking into something big. And troublesome.

* * *

When the child had disappeared, it had been regrettable, but he hadn't been able to afford to put too many shinobi on the case.

When a small village was blown to pieces because of said child and his Uchiha companion, it became a pressing issue. Madara was already after the Uchiha boy. His spies had confirmed the Uchiha were on the move, patrolling the forest the two had been seen in.

Hashirama rubbed his temples, willing his impending headache to go away and letting some medical chakra seep into his skull. A hesitant, shaky date had been set for a meeting in five days- hopefully he could convince Madara to make peace at last. Until then, a _very_ weak, _very_ shaky, _very_ fragile cease fire had been called on both sides.

If only he could get it through his friend's brain that peace was achievable if they just _worked together_.

It seemed finding someone who could undo _Mito's_ work and a boy with the Mangekyo was deserving of their attention. Mito was the best seal master in her clan, second only to her father. When she'd examined the tag Toka had returned with, she'd disappeared into the Uzumaki's tent and stayed there for nearly two hours, her mutterings audible every once in a while. When she'd emerged, she'd still been frowning at it, and told him whoever had made it was just as skilled as, if not more so, than she herself.

He didn't want the children to be used as pawns by anyone. He didn't want any more children to die. He knew, at least, that Madara felt the same, and if the Uchiha found them first the Uzumaki wouldn't simply be executed as Madara's father would have done- that was his only comfort.

However, Toka's squad had already failed twice to retrieve them. Hashirama certainly didn't want to force them to come back with them- he couldn't see a route around the Uzumaki boy's refusal. The fact that they were friends made nostalgia warm his heart, and his resolve to unite their clans stronger.

The Hagane had been stirring up trouble. The Akimichi had sent reinforcements to help the Senju clan deal with them, but they were a clan that lived entirely underground, and thus invisible to their means of finding them. Hashirama had attempted to make a peace agreement with the Aburame and get their help with it, but they were notoriously neutral. The same with the Nara, but they were only such out of sheer laziness. The Shimura had massed in an encampment thirty miles from the area the Senju and Uchiha saw the most conflict in, and that was even more concerning.

There was no place safe for two kids without a clan wandering around. If the Senju or Uchiha didn't find them, the Hagane or Shimura would- or another clan that would slit their throats without a second thought. Or worse, break them and use them for their own means.

Still…they were too fast for his average shinobi. He needed someone who could actually catch them. As well as evaluate whether or not they could turn into a threat.

Rubbing his cheek, he poked his head out the flap of his tent. "TOBIRAMA!"

"I'm _right_ here, brother," Tobirama said from behind him, tone filled with ire. Hashirama cringed. "What do you need?"

Laughing, Hashirama gestured with one hand. "You know those children Toka found the other day? I need you to go talk to them…"

Tobirama raised his eyebrows, ever observant. "'Talk'?"

"Well, I don't exactly know what to do. I don't want to force them to stay with any one clan, but it's dangerous for them to be on their own-"

"And quite dangerous for the people around them, I hear."

"Well- er, yes, but- Toka tells me they were fleeing then."

"So what _exactly_ do you want me to do? Bring them here or not?"

"Just…try and convince them to come back with you and make sure no one kills them while you're doing so?"

Tobirama sighed. "You're too indecisive. I don't know how we've made it this far."

A cloud of depression came down over the elder's head as he turned away to sulk. "I'll find them," Tobirama said, eyebrow twitching.

"Great!" Hashirama perked up instantly. "Take Toka and Tsuyoi with you. Tsuyoi's an excellent tracker, and Toka knows what they look like. They would've caught them, just…they're too slow, so you'll have to leave them behind when you find them."

"Very well, brother."

* * *

Naruto was getting very, very tired of this fight. Kizoku's voice was droning and made him sleepy, like the first sensei he'd had in the Academy. He dodged a spear made of rock, trading it for a tidal wave that wet the ground and turned it to mud. He thought that might slow his opponent down, but he just starting creating mud wolves to sick on him.

Biting his thumb, Naruto spread his blood across his wrist, making a seal glow blue. He released a volley of kunai, promptly blocked by an earth wall. The explosive tags on the handles detonated, breaking the wall into pieces.

Kizoku came sprinting through the smoke, relatively unharmed, and Naruto summoned the next blade in his lineup, a small tanto. Kizoku's katana was much larger, but he wielded it sloppily, and Naruto evaded his attacks like the man was just a chuunin.

"Hah!" The man stumbled when he slipped out of the way, hitting the dirt and forming a crater with his swing. "Damn you!"

"Damn you yourself," Naruto muttered. _Such a drag_. The fight had dragged on _forever_. In the distance, he could feel Sasuke clashing with a few more- they'd both trained with blindfolds, but Naruto was horrible at it. He always managed to fall on his face.

Kizoku was annoying.

When he lost his last thread of patience, he released his gravity seals, stumbling when he did so. The rocks around him were all bashed to pieces from their altercation, with random holes in the ground where his opponent had tried to get the drop on him. Kizoku's specialty was earth style jutsu- it was like fighting Kakashi with earth instead of lightning.

When the gravity returned to normal, he felt like he was walking on clouds. His exhaustion seemed to disappear instantly, and he leapt about the plateau, easily staying steps ahead of Kizoku.

He hadn't felt so light- so airy- so energetic- since-

For years, really.

_Sasuke stared at the sunset, sitting on the edge of his porch. Naruto loitered around in the doorway, wondering whether or not he should say something._

_He cleared his throat. "Um…you okay, Sasuke?"_

_He received no answer. Sasuke pulled his knees to his chest, leaning his chin against them. Naruto hesitantly sat down against the outside wall behind him, fiddling with his jacket's zipper._

_Sometimes no words were needed, only the presence of someone to let a grieving person know they weren't alone. Naruto sat there until the sun dipped into the horizon and rose again, followed Sasuke to his room and into his kitchen and to the training areas, watched him litter the targets with hundreds of shuriken, until Sasuke finally turned to him with a lost look._

_"What do I do, Naruto?"_

_"…I don't know," was all Naruto could say. Neither one of them had stepped foot outside the Uchiha District; not since finding out the slaughter hadn't been senseless and a trio of drunkards had shown Naruto what the village really held for him._

_They both felt so tired._

_Naruto had always loved pranking, but he hadn't touched a can of paint or a glitter bomb in weeks. Sasuke had been filled with righteous indignation and fury, but now he felt nothing; or more accurately, he didn't know how he felt._

_"We should just take a break, Sasuke. Take a break from…everything." From revenge. From dealing with what Itachi had done. From dealing with the villagers' hate._

_"Yeah…" Sasuke agreed. "A break."_

_They each nodded slightly, as if to convince themselves, and ambled back towards Sasuke's house._

_They never returned from the break._

* * *

"Okay, this guy was annoying," Naruto sighed, kicking a stray rock. Kizoku's body lay strewn about the area, in pieces, a little bit here, a little bit there. "Unfortunately, he was only one of those monologue-ing fodder-minions you see in manga and isn't really that significant so the author just skims over their fight so the main character can fight the 'boss', which I'm guessing is the clan head or something with our situation, because why not go the cheesy route to annoy people?"

"I sense a small encampment to the west," Sasuke said, ignoring him.

"Let's go east, then."

"They'll just follow us."

"Dammit, Sasuke, challenging the boss is too much work. If we kill him his clan'll probably just kill us."

"What else is there to do?"

"You're just bored, aren't you?"

"Shut up."

* * *

Itachi stared blankly at the destroyed hotel room around him.

" _I love you!"_

Moments before, his brother, the only family he had left in the world, the person who was supposed to be none the wiser, loathing his existence, and _in Konoha_ , had slipped out of the earthly plane into a piece of seal work that made his chakra evaporate from Itachi's senses.

Calm on the outside and starting to panic inwardly, he examined the room, looking for any sign of the two boys. There was no chakra, no _trace_ of Sasuke- he'd literally disappeared into thin air.

It wasn't like the Fourth's Hiraishin. It was wild and uncontrolled- it could have _killed_ them, with how panicked it had made the one who _made_ it.

In fact…if Sasuke were sure he was going to survive, it was likely he wouldn't bother alerting Itachi to the fact he knew the truth, or had just forgiven him. He hadn't sought Itachi out for six years. If he'd been waiting until he ran into Itachi to tell him, he surely would have chosen different wording- "I know the truth", ""I know about the coup", but "I love you"?

No, his eyes had been frantic. As if he thought he would never get the chance to say it again. He couldn't just alert the village about this and let them handle it- the situation was dire.

"Ugh," groaned Kisame, having just stepped through the door, unsteady on his feet. "I dunno what hit me, but-"

He choked and gurgled on his own blood, Itachi's kunai skewering his neck.

On some level, he liked Kisame. He was amusing when it called for it and easy enough to deal with, unlike Deidara or Kakuzu. He hadn't been one to judge what Itachi had done.

But there was a charred scroll on the floor with a smoking and faded sealing array, and the shark man would only be extra baggage when Itachi found a seal master to coerce into dissecting the thing.

Mission be damned.


	4. honey, you've got a big storm comin

“Well, we’re here. I hope you’re happy.” Naruto stared down at the encampment below irritably, flicking a miniscule pebble off his shoulder.

The compound below was set in a canyon, lower than usual- almost like it was buried in the earth, but open to the sky. The tents were all made of rock, and the canyon walls stretched high above- as tall as the Hokage Tower had been (or, was going to be)- and taller. There were only two paths in and out, while from the outside, it just looked like a cliff face. Naruto could see several tunnels leading underground, no doubt where they kept most of their shinobi.

The two crouched in a ledge in the wall, dozens of feet overhead. The rocks had been slick and nearly impossible to climb even with chakra, but Naruto had extended a chakra arm to the top and pulled them up most of the way. Outside the cliff, the ground was rocky, with a flat clearing some ways off that was as large as the bridge in Wave had been.

“What exactly are we doing, by the way?” Naruto asked. His gut was tense, screaming at him this was a bad idea- although he couldn’t actually sense more than twenty shinobi there. He doubted it was their only camp anyway.

“Trying to find their clan head,” Sasuke supplied.

“How the heck are we supposed to know which one it is?”

“…”

“We spent three days getting here and you didn’t think beyond that.”

“The least we can do is gather information. We need to know how much they know about us. It’s a reconnaissance mission, okay?”

“ _Sigh…_ fine.”

Naruto ran through a set of hand seals. “Meisaigakure no Jutsu,” he whispered.

Sasuke didn’t react when his friend seemingly disappeared. He was still wearing his bandages, going off his other senses to move around. He activated the chameleon jutsu himself and slid a kunai into his palm. “Keep to the outer edges,” Naruto muttered. “Meet back here in twenty minutes.”

The two separated, with Sasuke slowly making his way towards a larger tent on the wall and Naruto climbing down to the surface to investigate.

 _What could go wrong?_ he thought. _Well, besides everything._

* * *

 

“Whaddaya think the Uno are gonna cook up for this this time?”

“Not sure, but next time I see one, I’m going to put a kunai through his tongue. Uno clan’s annoying as hell.”

Naruto slipped into the area between two tents, crouching in the shadows as he eavesdropped on the two shinobi around the remains of a campfire. He was keeping his chakra suppressed, but he prayed they didn’t randomly have a sensor nin with superhuman abilities, or he and Sasuke were screwed.

He carefully wound his body around the corner and slipped into a tent. There was nothing more than a cot and a wooden trunk inside. Scanning the trunk’s contents forked over nothing useful; he attached himself to the ceiling and crawled back outside, crouching on the end that gave him some cover from the rest of the encampment.

“Heard the Senju and Uchiha are having a peace talk or whatever.”

“I don’t expect anything to come of that. They’ve been fighting for decades. Probably longer. What makes them think they can stop now?”

Naruto frowned. _Peace talk?_ Logically, there would have been many of those before the founding of Konoha, but if his mental clock was right- even if history was his _worst_ subject- it was too early for the founding. Izuna was still alive. But still…what reasons, other than the usual “Let’s have peace!” “No!”, did Madara really have for saying no? Did something happen? Why _did_ it take so long?

“Everyone knows the Senju leader’s a softie. Doesn’t even send kids out on the battlefields anymore.”

“The Uchiha leader does that too, but I’d hardly call him a softie. Besides, have you seen Hashirama Senju on the battlefield? I have. It was nothing short of terrifying.”

A glint of light caught his attention. Naruto slithered into the shadows and made his way around the camp to Sasuke’s position, zeroing in on the kunai he was using to signal. He was near the wall, behind several tents, mostly out of sight.

Sasuke motioned at the ground. Naruto painstakingly took out a piece of sealing paper without making any noise and laid it out, drawing an elaborate pattern before pressing his chakra into it.

They both laid their ears on the paper and listened.

“… _it’s about thirty miles southeast of here. They damn near caught me while I was in hiding, but I managed to shake them. They don’t know I was there. The location they chose is near a river, with a bridge they’re going to use to meet in the middle.”_

_“Excellent. Did you plant our men successfully?”_

_“I was only able to get one in the Uchiha. They’re too damn observant. But one will be enough. I killed two Senju out on patrol and had my men take their place._ ”

“So, they planted moles to attempt assassination, and have each clan take the blame,” Naruto whispered. “The Senju and Uchiha must have been none the wiser.” He could see a frown on Sasuke’s face.

“ _It would be preferable to remove both Madara and Hashirama from play, but even one or neither will still be a beneficial outcome. They’re each other’s biggest enemies; the more conflict we can create between them, the easier it will be to attack either one-_ ”

“Don’t move a muscle,” said a voice behind them. Naruto froze and eyed Sasuke out of the corner of his eye. The Uchiha gave him the slightest nod.

Quick as a flash, he reached into his pouch and activated one of his more powerful bombs to toss into the air. The ninja behind them didn’t stand a chance when the tag detonated at point-blank range.

* * *

 

Sasuke groaned to himself and coughed on the smoke he could feel coating the air. A chakra claw from Naruto’s Kyuubi cloak had wrapped around him, shielding him from the explosion; around them, he could hear screaming from all sides as the residents of the Hagane clan tried to regroup and find the source of the attack.

Naruto took a leap that left them airborne. Sasuke waited until his feet touched the ground and just started to run, not knowing where he was going or even what direction but knowing Naruto would lead them away.

“How much did that take out?” he asked, looking for some context.

“Caused an avalanche,” Naruto responded with a grimace in his voice. “That’s keeping most of them from chasing us right now, but I’m still feeling a hell of a lot of chakra signals. They probably had precautions against that sort of thing. They’ll probably be out and about looking for us later.”

Sasuke fell silent and decided not to say what he knew they were both thinking. It was rash, it was ill-thought-out; they didn’t even know if the ambush was supposed to happen or not. Turns out Naruto wasn’t as good as keeping his thoughts to himself as he was.

“We have to stop that ambush,” he blurted out, causing Sasuke to groan.

“Naruto-”

“No, I mean it!” Naruto sputtered. “I mean- what if our presence here changed something? What if there was some event that kept them from succeeding that we inadvertently prevented? What if they think the Senju or Uchiha did that and them being pissed off ends up with someone being dead who shouldn’t be?” Sasuke was silent. “I mean…what if the village isn’t founded at all?”

That gave Sasuke pause. As much as he’d been irritated with the village sometimes, he didn’t want it to not exist at _all_. He groaned. “This is such a drag.”

“You’re telling me,” Naruto muttered.

* * *

 

The notion that someone was following them did nothing to ease Sasuke’s already stressed nerves. It was as if they couldn’t travel a single mile in this territory without someone catching their scent and deciding to come after them. Faintly, he wondered if this was what it was like to live in the Warring States Era- constantly fighting, constantly running, never having a place that was truly home. He thought it was enough to drive him crazy and he’d only been there a few days.

“I think we should split up,” Naruto said, and Sasuke sent him- or where he thought the blond was, at least- his best unimpressed look. “No, seriously! You can hide and I can get them off our trail. I’ll be back within a day.”

“You’d better be,” Sasuke threatened, using the stick he’d been using as a cane to whack his friend on the shin and make him pout. “I swear to god if you die in this time period I’m using your corpse as a sacrifice to that weird god we read about and becoming a cultist.”

“Jeez,” Naruto muttered. They came to an intersection in the forest where a few different well-trodden paths diverged and he squinted down each one. “All right,” he began, turning Sasuke to the east. “You go that way. Just find somewhere to hide and stay camouflaged. I’ll go this way.”

“I hope you realize I can’t see what ‘this way’ is,” Sasuke stated dryly.

Naruto snorted at him. “Ha, ha. Just start walking, idiot.”

“That’s my line.”

Sasuke kept a mental eye on Naruto’s chakra as they moved away from each other until he was too far away to sense clearly. As Naruto had planned, he felt the incoming chakra signatures move away, after Naruto, and tried not to worry too much. It was just like running away after a prank, he told himself. Naruto would be fine. A storm began brewing overhead.

It was hard not to leave tracks walking blind, so he quickly located a river and began walking alongside it, where the water would wash away his footsteps. It would undoubtedly be the first place Naruto looked for him when he came back. They’d met by a river, and often met there before the massacre had taken place.

He was just starting to relax when a tense feeling washed over him. He couldn’t sense anything, but he knew better than to ignore his gut. He leapt away into open space and to where he approximated the tree line should be, landing roughly on a branch and only partially hitting the trunk on his way. He waited there, on guard, waiting for whoever was approaching- or was already there- to show themselves.

When nothing happened, he slid a kunai into his hand and sorely wished he had his vision right now. “Show yourself,” he called out, unwilling to wait.

There was a moment of silence before a male voice answered him. “Calm yourself, child of the Uchiha. I’m not here to fight you.”

Sasuke swore in his head and turned to face the voice. He’d heard the grass start to rustle under the man’s feet, and it stopped for a moment when he did. “Are you injured?”

“Who are you and why are you here?” Sasuke demanded in lieu of answering, shifting his kunai in front of himself.

“Senju Tobirama of the Senju clan. I’m here by request of my brother. He seems to think bringing you back there is the best solution to all this.”

 _The Nidaime Hokage?_ Sasuke felt a sense of déjà vu wash over him. Louder, though, were the alarm bells going off inside his head. “I’m not going,” he spat out, shifting back half a step. “My friend and I aren’t going to be part of your stupid little wars. All of you need to just leave us alone.”

“Uchiha-” It was hard to read the man when he couldn’t see, but he heard him take a step forward. He reacted on instinct and shoved himself backwards, expecting another tree behind him. The blank air behind quickly disproved his expectation. “-Shit!”

Sasuke braced for impact with the ground and found the reason the Nidaime had sworn when he didn’t hit anything. The branch he’d been standing on had been overlooking a cliff.

There were a few fleeting moments before he crashed into ice cold water head-first, panic taking hold of him when he realized he didn’t know which way was up. He’d had no way to gage how far away he was from the surface on the way down and had accidentally inhaled a gulp of water that made him sputter. He coughed and activated his Sharingan on instinct, causing a bolt of blinding pain in his forehead seeing as his surgery had been mere days ago and he was still recovering. The combination of it all left him disoriented and rapidly losing consciousness; the last thing he felt was a pair of hands grabbing hold of him.

* * *

 

There was a blessed warmth in the air around him when he came to that he could attribute to the crackle of a fire he could hear. Without thinking, he sat up and reached for his kunai pouch, only to find it gone. It had probably fallen off in the river.

“You’re in no danger,” the same voice from before told him. He turned his head and followed it as best he could; he estimated that the man was sitting across from him, and by the slight echo and by the sound of rain outside, that they were in some sort of cave. “Assuming you don’t attack me, anyway.”

Sasuke frowned. “Why’d a Senju save me from drowning?”

Tobirama snorted. “I may be a Senju, child, but I would not let a stripling drown. So far you’ve done nothing overtly aggressive, unless you count that small town you and your friend demolished.” Sasuke cringed.

“Well it’s not like your friends and those Uchiha were going to just let us go,” he argued sourly.

“You didn’t want to return to your clan with them?”

“I don’t have a clan,” Sasuke snapped before he could stop himself. It was irrational to get angry at someone who was only acting as if Sasuke was indeed a part of the time period they were in, but he couldn’t help it.

Another moment of silence. “I take it you are not fond of them, then?”

There was some resentment towards his clan in him, Sasuke could admit. If they could have just let go of their bitterness and not tried to take over the village, they wouldn’t have been slaughtered. Itachi wouldn’t have been forced to do so. Sure, he was angry at the Hokage and the council as well for deciding on genocide as the solution, but he’d often been angry at more than one party. There was also his odd feelings of defensiveness- this Uchiha clan wasn’t _his_ Uchiha clan.

But still. Taking over the village? They couldn’t have formed a union? Complained at the Hokage and vented their anger? Formed a nice, respectable mob outside the Hokage Tower and gone on a hunger strike? Sometimes Sasuke thought his family was crazy.

“I don’t want anything to do with them,” he spat, surmising that this Uchiha clan must’ve been just as crazy as his. Even if they weren’t, he wasn’t going to get attached and then have to go back to his time and be _alone._ “All they do is get angry at outsiders and then think violence is the only possible solution and look for more power when they don’t get their way and act like having a Sharingan like mine is a good thing-” He stopped himself when he realized his rant- to a _stranger-_ was revealing too much.

There was dead silence save for the rain beating on the cave walls for a minute. Sasuke sat there awkwardly, staring at a random place in the cave.

“Well, you are certainly not incorrect,” Tobirama said after a minute more, sounding halfway been bemused and mildly impressed. “Though I didn’t expect such awareness from someone who’s achieved a Mangekyo.”

He sounded a little bit disturbed now. He was probably wondering how young Sasuke had been when he had.

Feeling exhausted, Sasuke leaned against the cave wall. “Well..whatever. We’re not going anywhere. And I’d go find your teammates if you don’t want Naruto to get his hands on them.” He cringed when he realized he’d said Naruto’s name. _Bye, timeline-stability_.

“My brother insisted I try to convince you otherwise. As much as you think you and your friend can survive on your own, you’ll die within a month,” Tobirama stated bluntly, making Sasuke flinch. “It doesn’t matter how talented or powerful you are. Aligning yourself with a clan is the only method of survival. The Uchiha and the Senju are set to engage in a peace talk in two days’ time.” His tone of voice said exactly how well he thought that would go. “Thus we are not engaged in any battles. At the very least, my brother is the only one offering you a choice as of right now. Considering how many clans fight over this region, you would be unwise to ignore that.”

Sasuke was quiet for a long minute. Despite the more defiant part of him wanting to disbelieve it, he knew the Nidaime was right. He and Naruto didn’t have many options- especially considering he hadn’t made any ground figuring out how to leave. They were both tired of being on the run. He grimaced. “…all right. Fine. But there was a…incident…nearby…with the Hagane. They’re bound to be crawling all over this area.” He could _feel_ the judgment in Tobirama’s stare. He had to know Sasuke and Naruto had been involved in this little ‘incident’ he mentioned. “They…may, or may not, be looking for us.”

“I brought two of my clanmates with me,” the Nidaime replied. “Once they find your companion, we will set out for the Senju’s territory. We will not let any harm befall you.”

He knew that wasn’t meant to comfort him, necessarily, just assure him the deal he was entering into was a safe one, but it set him a bit at ease nonetheless. He’d heard plenty of tales about the previous Hokage’s strength, even in the days before Konoha. “You’re probably going to have to find Naruto yourself,” he admitted. “If you tell him Sasuke sent you, he’ll probably believe you.”

Before the Nidaime could answer, there was a tingle to his senses that made him go ramrod straight. He tuned in and found Naruto’s chakra signature to the west, raging wildly, nearly overshadowing the several around him. It nearly sent him into another panic. “You have to go help him,” he insisted, unable to keep said panic out of his voice.

The Senju’s sandals scuffed the dirt as he moved closer to the cave mouth, having stood without Sasuke noticing. “Dammit,” the man muttered, sounding frustrated.

He turned to Sasuke. “Stay here,” he ordered.

Sasuke felt his presence leave. He slumped back against the wall, angry at himself for being useless, and monitored Naruto’s chakra. That idiot better not die.

* * *

 

When Naruto had realized it was simply the same two Senju from before, he’d started to have fun giving them the run-around and setting semi-harmless traps for them. So far, the woman in the duo had honey stuck in her hair, the male had stains all over him from a berry trap, and they were both looking worse for wear.

His first mistake had been letting his guard down as he left them dealing with a den of bears he’d led them to stir up. He was too used to the forests around Konoha, where he didn’t have to worry about enemies.

His second mistake was leaping in front of an attack meant for Senju Tobirama. For how little he cared about everything, he still seemed to have an irritating self-sacrificing nature. God, he wished he was back home eating a tub of ice cream while one of those stupid soap operas played on TV.

Before Tobirama arrived, he was struggling to dodge every attack the Hagane shinobi sent his way without revealing too much. There was only so much he could do without letting them know he was a Jinchuriki. And he _really_ didn’t want this world knowing he was a Jinchuriki.

He ducked under a masked shinobi’s swing and kicked the kunoichi following him up in the gut. It sent her catapulting into another of the Hagane, taking them both through a tree, and he turned to dodge the tantō another wielded while yet another leapt at him from above. There was a rumble underfoot that suggested another had gone underground.

 _Maybe splitting up was a bad idea after all,_ he thought.

He formed a Rasengan in hand- something he’d picked up from Jiraiya- _you know, maybe training with that guy wasn’t so bad compared to this experience-_ and slammed it into the ground. The resulting explosion left him standing in a wide crater and the shinobi many yards away from him, surrounding him on all sides.

He eyed them warily as they stared back. He wondered which was going to attack first-

Kunai landed in the ground around him. He jumped in surprise and tried not to look too startled, but still nearly shrieked when a man appeared directly in front of him, grabbed him by the arm, and disappeared again, this time taking him with him.

He jumped away from the mystery shinobi as soon as there was solid ground beneath him again. “Who the fuck are you?” he hissed.

The shinobi gave him an unimpressed look. “Your friend Uchiha Sasuke sent me.” Naruto froze. “As for who I am, Senju Tobirama. You have a knack for making trouble, don’t you?”

 _Is-is he the Nidaime Hokage?_ “What?” Naruto stared at him.

“Your friend,” Tobirama said, staring down at him with narrow eyes, “has agreed to come with me to Senju territory, and I suggest you do the same. I doubt you want to be separate from him.” When all Naruto did was continue staring with an open mouth, he frowned down at him. “I suggest you make your decision quickly. There are-” He glanced to the west of them. “Now twenty-two shinobi coming our way.”

“Uh…okay. Okay?” Naruto didn’t know why Sasuke had agreed to this, but considering there were twenty-two shinobi after his ass, he decided to roll with it.

“Very well.” Tobirama took out two handfuls of the marked kunai Naruto had seen before. He realized the man must have used a teleportation technique just like the Yondaime had. _Small world._ “The Hagane defeat their enemies by overwhelming them with numbers. Individually, most of their clan are unremarkable, save for their higher-ranked officers. I’m going to make a distraction. Hang back and pick off those you can reach.”

“Aye-aye,” Naruto said with a halfhearted salute. The Nidaime squinted at him for a moment before disappearing.

Naruto hiked himself higher up in the tree they’d appeared in and took out his kunai. The Hagane came creeping through the forest on the ground below, and he could sense more in the immediate area.

A kunai landed in the ground in the midst of four below. The Nidaime appeared in a flash, and before Naruto could blink, he’d sliced the throats of all four of the Hagane around him. This, in turn, alerted the other Hagane, but he was already disappearing to another of his markers.

Naruto dropped to a lower height, landing on the back of a Hagane who thought to sneak up behind the Nidaime as he dealt with those on the ground, and stabbed the man in the throat. He shoved the body to the forest floor to momentarily distract a shinobi and kunoichi below and skewered one with a well-placed pair of kunai. The kunoichi looked up at him and scowled before jumping for him, and let out a gurgle when a kage bunshin he’d made stabbed her from behind.

Tobirama had used the fact that they were spread out to look for them to his advantage and quickly killed three more by the time the rest converged on the clearing when they felt their comrades’ chakra disappearing. Naruto counted down in his head- twelve left.

If he was being honest, he wasn’t entirely clear on the next sequence of events because they happened so damn quickly. A rumble spread through the ground, making him take hold of the tree he was in to stay upright, and he had to vacate that tree when rock spikes shot out of the ground in every which way. The direction he’d chosen sent him right into the middle of the conflict- eight, now, the Nidaime really was fast- and he managed to fling a kunai into another’s neck- _seven-_ when one of the kunoichi there yelled something out he couldn’t understand and slapped her palms to the ground. Stone spikes started flying in every direction, sending him scurrying to try and dodge them all. Through the smoke cloud that had erupted when the ground was disturbed, he saw the same kunoichi charging up a lightning-based attack.

There was a flash of blue on his right, and he saw her taking careful aim before the spark in her hands arced out and moved around spikes like a homing beacon.

He didn’t know whether it would connect or not, but the blue blur was currently fighting with three Hagane, and he really couldn’t take the chance of getting Konoha’s Nidaime killed.

 _Man, this is such a drag_.

He pushed off as hard as he could and intercepted the attack. Nothing but a bright blur, he took it in the gut and grunted as he went crashing through the trees, landing hard enough he broke the dense layer of dirt on the surface away from the battle.

 _Ow_ , he thought, and tried to move his hand. He accomplished a small twitch- all of him felt rather twitchy- but he couldn’t move. The lightning had been a stunner.

A hand shot up through the ground and grabbed ahold of him. _It’s a dog-eat-dog world, I guess,_ he thought with a grimace as he was dragged into the kunoichi’s tunnel. _How troublesome._

A voice in his head that sounded suspiciously like Sasuke told him he was starting to sound like Shikamaru again.

* * *

 

“Oh, boy,” Tsuyoi muttered, sending Toka a look. “That’s his pissed off expression.”

Toka pressed her lips together. In a less serious situation, she might have rolled her eyes. As it was, she understood her superior’s frustration; she might not have been very invested if she’d simply heard about the two children dying or being abducted, but now that the Senju had put forth a conscious effort to retrieve them, it felt personal that the Hagane had snatched them up under their noses. She didn’t like failing a mission- especially when there were children involved. She had to admit it would have stung, too, if she was actively trying to defend one of them in a battle and she’d failed. She didn’t even have to imagine what that was like. There was a reason so many in their clan were pushing for peace.

“What are our plans now, Tobirama-sama?” she called out in lieu of answering Tsuyoi.

The man turned from his place overlooking the cave he’d left the Uchiha boy in, which was now collapsed with two bloodied bodies in front. He’d been in a sour mood every since they’d happened upon him fighting several Hagane at once. Dead bodies had littered the forest floor, and he’d hurriedly searched the area around them for ten minutes before relating the events with a scowl.

“We’re returning to the clan,” he said, a deep frown pulling at his lips. “It’s impossible to track them underground and if we are to retrieve them, we’ll need a larger force.” They could only assume the Hagane had the Uchiha as well, or else he was somewhere out in the rain wandering.

Toka shared a frown with Tsuyoi. “If they return to their encampment-” There wasn’t really a question of if, but rather when, she knew.

Tobirama interrupted her with a grimace. “It could mean war to try and take them back. I’m hesitant to say it, but the Senju may be required to work with the Uchiha to retrieve them.”

“I doubt they’ll want such an advanced Sharingan falling into enemy hands.”

“Exactly. Even Madara will see the necessity for cooperation now. If not, then each of us will be vying for victory and it will simply be chaos.”

* * *

 

Sasuke was in a decidedly bad mood. He’d been forced to take his bandages off to escape the Hagane that attacked him at the cave, who he’d left on the ground with holes in their chests. At least the chidori gave him a quick way to kill someone.

He tried to keep his eyes closed when he could. They felt tender and mildly sore, which was a- how would Naruto put it- very ‘squicky’ way to feel. He couldn’t sense his friend’s chakra anymore, and he wasn’t exactly a skilled enough sensor nin he could search for it from long range. So not only was he tired, practically half-blind compared to what he could normally do, and on the run, but his idiot friend could be being dissected somewhere.

All in all, it was an incredibly shitty day.

He could only assume that, if Naruto had gotten away, he would head for the bridge where the peace talk was supposed to take place- thirty miles southeast of where they’d come from. It was the only direction they both knew to go and Sasuke knew Naruto would most likely guess that Sasuke was heading there too.

So he adjusted the large leaf he was holding over his head, hunkered down, and picked up his pace through the rain to get there faster. The day was almost over, which left only roughly a day before the peace talk was set to meet. He tried to ignore the hopeless feeling that took hold of his gut.

* * *

 

As soon as the stun wore off- it probably wasn’t made to take down a Jinchuriki- Naruto called forth his three-tailed chakra cloak and sunk his claws into his captor’s abdomen. She went down with a shriek, flailing wildly at him, but they were completely alone and he’d had enough. Her strikes connected with the Kyuubi chakra and she recoiled when her skin began to burn.

He hurled her through the ceiling of the tunnel, causing a boom that reverberated through the forest. He leapt out after her and let his cloak dissipate.

She crawled feebly away from him, bleeding heavily from her stomach and unable to touch anything without hissing at the feeling of her raw flesh meeting dirt. Pissed off, he formed a Rasengan and slammed it into her head, coating everything around him in blood, including himself. Without a torso, the rest of her body fell limp.

It was then he checked and sensed the chakra signatures moving in around him. He tensed and whipped around, only to find shapes moving about in the forest. Night had fallen by now and left a sinister-looking atmosphere in the shadows. One of the figures stepped out of one, raised an eyebrow at the body, and then at him. The red armor he wore did nothing to identify him, but his uncanny resemblance to Sasuke’s family did.

“Who the fuck are you?” Naruto demanded, pointing an index finger at the man.

The eyebrow rose higher. That was an uncannily judgmental eyebrow. “Uchiha Madara. And who are you?”


End file.
